College Applicants Can Use ZeeMee to Show As Well As Tell

As rising Seniors start their college applications, they have another option available to enhance their submissions: ZeeMee, a thriving tech start-up that will be making major upgrades on August 1st to both its free-to-students ZeeMee Story platform and its paid-by-colleges ZeeMee Community offering.

Where I work, at Drew University, we use ZeeMee because we know students are more than the sum of their grades and test scores. We value all the different dimensions they bring to a true residential community where we guarantee housing for all four years and seek a vibrant collection of personalities and talents; moreover, Drew was founded 150 years ago with a powerful mission of social justice and giving back to the community, and some stories are well told via videos as well as through essays and interviews.

We use ZeeMee in order to make better-informed decisions about all the attributes our applicants have to offer.

With our use of their platform in mind, I wanted to learn more about ZeeMee and how it can benefit students, so I asked the founders some questions:

1. Where did the idea for ZeeMee originate?

Juan Jaysingh and Adam Metcalf were college roommates who had a passion to see a revolution in education where students were not treated as a sum of their scores, but celebrated for their unique stories. Story is the core component of ZeeMee, because every student has a story. We bring these stories to life via short videos, and these stories help us connect in a robust community that starts on-line but carries over into the residential life of colleges and universities.

An avid tennis player, Juan immigrated to the United States alone at the age of 14 and experienced the power of being seen during a chance encounter that eventually landed him scholarships to study and compete in high school and college. Also a first-generation student, Juan desired to provide opportunity to students from around the world, especially those from underrepresented minority groups, to share their powerful stories via video in what can otherwise be only a two-dimensional application process. As a classroom teacher, Adam saw problems students had in truly expressing their identities and wanted to add a meaningful additional dimension to an antiquated model of application that he felt denied students more meaningful self-expression.

2. What are the benefits for students, who should consider signing up, and what can they do to enhance their applications?

Students on ZeeMee can use short videos to fully express themselves in their applications. ZeeMee goes far beyond transcripts, test scores and essays in showcasing character, grit and passion. In a world where over one billion videos are shared daily on Snapchat, ZeeMee is a natural extension of the student’s everyday life. In addition to sharing your story on ZeeMee, you can connect with other stories through ZeeMee’s college communities and begin to meet other students before you arrive campus.

3. What caution or guidance would you have based on students who might not have used ZeeMee properly and to their benefit?

ZeeMee is tailored toward an authentic experience. It brings much more transparency and integrity to the application process. Colleges love it when students keep it authentic; that is why ZeeMee is a mobile app experience, where you can easily capture short videos to share your story. It is important to always keep it real.

4. How does a student who is interested learn more and create an account? Is there a fee? If not, where do your revenues come from?

Simply download the ZeeMee app and start creating your story. ZeeMee is completely free to students. Colleges pay ZeeMee for providing them a robust, college-specific community and communication tools that help all involved share unique stories via video. ZeeMee provides a professional social media experience, where students can connect with colleges via a platform that students in over 150 countries are using, one that is not in the student’s personal space on Snapchat and Instagram.

5. How many and which colleges and universities currently use ZeeMee, and how many more do you expect to join the platform?

In the 2015-2016 admissions cycle, 12 colleges partnered with ZeeMee. In the 2016-2017 admissions cycle that grew to 182 colleges. ZeeMee presently has more than 250 college partners, and we anticipate it will be around 300 by the start of the 2017-2018 admissions cycle. ZeeMee is a great fit for colleges that believe students are more than the sum total of their test scores, desire to increase diversity at their college, and are agents of change in an antiquated system that needs to adopt to the evolving needs of the students. Since the experience for students is on our mobile app, colleges get to meet students where they are these days: on mobile devices, using a lot of video for communication in the context of their chat, text, chatbot and other cyber-communities, very much as described by students here.

As someone who reads college applications every fall and winter, I know that the additional information ZeeMee provides can help me get a fuller picture of the applicant. I will also say that, as with letters of recommendation, less can be more. We already have a lot to evaluate, and there is only so much additional information that will help an applicant, so my advice is: Don’t overshare by sending us everything; be a good editor and send us only your best.

Finally, proofread: the first ZeeMee submission I saw two years ago had at least one typo in the text. ZeeMee is primarily a video medium, but don’t let a basic Old School typographical error mar your presentation, because fine colleges like Drew still expect to see a lot more writing than video once you’re enrolled.

After three decades in secondary education in the United States, the Caribbean and Europe, Chris Teare is now Senior Associate Director of Admissions at Drew University in Madison, NJ.

I am Senior Associate Director of Admissions at Drew University in Madison, NJ. A graduate of Amherst College (BA, English), Columbia University (MS, Journalism) and St. John’s College (MA, Liberal Arts), I have taught, coached, counseled and been an administrator in indep...